Green Synthesis of Pyridyl Conjugated Microporous Polymers as Precursors for Porous Carbon Microspheres for Efficient Electrochemical Energy Storage

Efficient materials for electrochemical energy storage have received much attention. Herein we report a green metal-free route to synthesize pyridyl conjugated microporous polymers (PCMPs) as precursors for nitrogen-doped porous carbon microspheres (NCMs) with high surface areas up to 1232 m(2) g(-1) via a simple carbonization method. The resulting NCMs as supercapacitor electrodes exhibit high specific capacitance of 324 F g(-1) at a current density of 0.1 A g(-1), and high rate ability (182 F g(-1) at 10 A g(-1)), and excellent cyclability (remained >97 % of initial capacitance at 2 A g(-1) after 10000 cycles). This work also presents that molecular engineering of PCMP precursor, pyrolysis temperature and charge/discharge cycling allow the electrochemical energy storage properties of the NCMs to be controlled.